Still and all, why bother? Here's my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone. --Vonnegut

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Biden and Romney

Politically, I think Biden has a lot of upside but is risky in that he is prone to gaffes. He's a perfect complement to Obama, politically: old, white, hawkish, macho, and combative. Between Obama and Biden, we have the duo least likely to fall victim to the effete, elitist charge the Republicans have used to great effect in the past 50 years. (Obama is an intellectual and has a slim build, but still radiates masculinity in a way unheard of by Gore, Kerry, Mondale, Carter, Dukakis, etc.) He'll be a great attack dog and he would be an able president should the unthinkable happen. He'll help with Pennsylvania, with old people, and possibly the Catholic vote. (Most Catholics in America are pro-choice and have traditionally been Democrats, but there has been some slippage in recent elections.) Finally, the gaffes he's made regarding race might be diminished in importance because of Obama's race.

If TIME is right about Romney being the pick, I think it's also a great choice politically, maybe even better than Obama's. He's a great complement to McCain: he's young and virile-looking, a right-wing Christian, and appears controlled and unflappable. The only risk is if the Christian right or the (already diminished) secular right doesn't come out to vote because he's a Mormon, but they'll likely be more scared of having a secret Muslim/black Christian radical than of a Mormon. It's more about having a "one of us" feeling than about labels. McCain is not "one of them" and they know it, but Romney is. One other potential downside is that Romney will make it harder for McCain to distance himself from the Republican establishment.

JA - When the reaction among people like myself and my father both is "YAY!" to Biden being the pick, I think you should worry.

Could be. However, your and your father's opinions aren't relevant since you weren't going to vote for him anyway. What matters are those people who might have sat out or voted McCain. To take just one example, more old white ladies might come out to vote for Obama/Biden in Pennsylvania.

Also, "Change!" my @$$. :) I think Obama made the most "parve" pick he could make, and that alone sinks him a lot.

Oh please. He made a pick to complement rather than accentuate. "Change" doesn't mean "I will change every single thing, no matter how senseless that change is." The VP doesn't usually even do anything.

I've never taken Romney seriously as a Republican. His flip-flops caused him to bit a bad fit for the party itself. Mormonism is still thought of negatively in the world of the Christian right and would be more of a handicap to McCain than I think anyone has even thought.

So I welcome it, if that is in fact the direction McCain's headed, because it would ultimately benefit Obama in the long run.

We're happy because we think it will pick up absolutely zero voters, but it might upset a whole bunch of people in the middle. It has nothing to do with us per se.

What does that mean, complement? Old, white? Complement would be someone like Palin for McCain, in that it's someone who can focus on certain issues while the President focuses on others (say, economics). Biden doesn't do that for Obama in any way - he's simply there to try and not scare people away.

We're happy because we think it will pick up absolutely zero voters, but it might upset a whole bunch of people in the middle. It has nothing to do with us per se.

Understood.

What does that mean, complement? Old, white? Complement would be someone like Palin for McCain, in that it's someone who can focus on certain issues while the President focuses on others (say, economics). Biden doesn't do that for Obama in any way - he's simply there to try and not scare people away.

Biden will bring his long experience and foreign policy expertise. If they just didn't want to scare anyone away, they would have picked someone more mild and less gaffe-prone.

Despite the Dems and the allied main stream media’s desperation to see Romney as McCain’s Veep, Mitt is clearly out, with (1) Obama doubling down on the class warfare theme (McCain’s 7 houses) and (2) McCain doubling down with ads showing the hypocrisy of Biden attacking Obama in the primaries — Romney did way more than that contra McCain.

This leaves only Govs Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty. Pro-abortion Ridge and Dem-Lieberman were never real considerations, despite relentless media goading. Pawlenty’s lackluster TV performances, coupled with Palin pizzazz, the primacy of oil drilling and the ticked off women/Hillary voters, does now portend a McCain/Palin checkmate on the Dems. This is so albeit the Dems and liberal media dare not mention Palin’s name, that is, everyone but…..

And if there’s any question as to Palin being uniquely positioned and able to more than nullify Biden in debate, see the excellent discussion at palinforvp.blogspot.com